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Ch. 49 - An Introduction to Ecology

Chapter 48, Problem 15

The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range. Biologists are scrambling to study the reproductive biology of lionfish to inform management decisions. For example, Alexander Fogg and colleagues studied lionfish females in the northern Gulf of Mexico and estimated that an average female could produce 2,332,490 eggs per year. What time of year is reproductive rate the highest? To answer this question, the researchers collected an average of 200 lionfish each month and measured ovary size relative to body size, an indicator of reproductive capacity. Describe the take-home message of the graph. How do the error bars affect your confidence in this message?

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Hi everyone here's the next problem. It says soil water and air are the blank components of the ecosystem. Whereas all living organisms are the blank components. So we have living systems as our second term and soil, water and air which are obviously non living things. So we want about ecosystems. We want to talk about non living and living components because we study ecosystems. We're looking at the interaction between the living and non living components of the ecosystem. Um The terms are for non living are a biotic and biotic. So let's look at our answer choices. We need a biotic to be first and biotic second. So we see that choice B has a biotic as a first choice and so does choice D. So we can eliminate choice A. Um which has them in the reverse order. And choice C. Choi C. Has Sopra trophic as the first words. Hypertrophic means getting nutrients from decaying organic matter. So like fungi or sopra trophic. Obviously not the right word for soil, water and air. And then we're looking for biotic as our second term. So when we look at um Choice B, we see that choice B. Has biotic as the second term and therefore Choice B is our correct answer. Choice D. As permanent as the second word is obviously living organisms are not permanent um as they die. So choice D. Is not our correct answer. So again soil water and air are the choice be a biotic components of the ecosystem, whereas all living organisms are the biotic components. See you in the next video
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Textbook Question

The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range. Lionfish are usually found in full-salinity seawater (35 parts per thousand). However, lab studies show that lionfish can tolerate salinities as low as 4 parts per thousand for several days, suggesting that the low-salinity water of estuaries (such as at the mouth of the Amazon River) may not be a barrier to lionfish dispersal along the coasts. Sketch a niche model predicting lionfish abundance as a function of salinity.

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Textbook Question

The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range. DNA studies suggest that the lionfish invasion began with just a few females released off the coast of Florida, probably from a fish tank. Based on your knowledge of ocean currents, predict the direction in which the lionfish dispersed most quickly.

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Textbook Question

The red lionfish, Pterois volitans, has beautiful red stripes, streaming fins, and a fearless disposition, and it is deadly. Native to the Pacific Ocean, the red lionfish was first discovered on coral reefs in the Bahamas in 1985. The species has spread to over 3 million square kilometers of the western Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico. Lionfish have a voracious appetite for native fish, are armed with venomous spines, and have no natural predators in their new range. List the five main levels of ecological study, and write a question about the ecology of lionfish that you could research at each level.

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